Avi was born in Jerusalem as a wave of hope was cresting. Hope in a peace that had drawn closer than anyone dared to imagine. Hope felt so strongly by Avi’s parents, his middle name is Shalom. Over the next twenty years Avi and his family found themselves in Cleveland, Chicago, Phoenix, New Jersey, Manhattan… and finally… Avi found his own personal Shangri-La… Fredonia, NY, where he attended college, discovered nature amongst the charms of small-town life, and had his first psychedelic experience.
Denis and Avi talk about where hope yet lies this quarter century since his birth. Could it be the promising results emerging from psychedelic research? And yet Avi hastens to qualify every statement he makes about psychedelics with attention to honesty and critical thinking. He’s careful to point out the small study samples, and he humbly admits that his own experiences are highly subjective. Details, caveats, conditions, and contingencies are generously supplied. His candor reveals a wider ratio of risk to benefit than one is likely to hear from the growing throng of psychedelic enthusiasts. Denis found Avi’s rational exuberance for inebriants nothing short of… sobering.
Show Notes
Avi and Denis talked about Lotus, a Jamtronica band Avi has seen over 60 times!
Avi talked about the promising studies with psilocybin and MDMA at NYU and Johns Hopkins to treat nicotine addiction, end of life anxiety, and PTSD.
Avi related the history of how psychiatrist Humphry Osmond first grappled with what to name psychedelics before the very word was invented.
Avi participates in a psychedelic harm reduction project called, The Sanctuary, which was started by Kwasi Adsei and other folks from the Psychedelic Society of Western New York. The Sanctuary provides a tent at local music festivals. People experiencing challenging and potentially harmful psychedelic experiences can find refuge from the noise and crowds, and encounter helpful, trained, compassionate people to help them through a moments of crisis.
Avi referred Denis to John Buckley’s local chapter of Re-Evaluation or Co-Counseling group in Buffalo. Denis immediately joined and was NOT disappointed. More on that in a future episodes!
Earlier in the Show…
Denis had a dream about Mavriks Vulfsons, Dita Luce, and Valdis Abols, while mourning the death of his guru, Paul Brenton. Denis lives in a strange world in which eventually… all his dreams come true.